Polycarbonate print settings

Engineering grade: the highest heat resistance and impact strength you will print on a hobby machine.

Enclosure: Expect warping, splitting layers or failed prints without one.

Bed surface & adhesion

PEI with a glue-stick release layer. It bonds ferociously when hot.

Retraction starting points

Dry the filament first — with these, stringing is far more often moisture than retraction, and no retraction value fixes a wet spool.

Good for

• Parts that must survive over 110 °C
• Transparent, impact-resistant covers and lenses

Watch out for

• Needs an all-metal hot end — 300 °C degrades a PTFE-lined one and releases fumes
• Warps and delaminates without a genuinely hot enclosure
• Dry it — wet PC prints cloudy and weak

Problems this material is prone to

Other filaments

These are widely-published starting points for the generic material, not a specification. Individual spools vary by brand, colour and additive package — always defer to the figures printed on your spool.